Jan 23rd 2012: And the winner of the 3D mouse is.....

Congratulations to ranjan.ajm who is the lucky winner of the SpaceMouse Pro! Thanks once again to 3Dconnexion for sponsoring the prize draw one again.

Hot topics2D drawings Were can I find 2D drawings? I need to practice my Inventor and Solidworks skills and I need 2D drawings in order to turn them into 3D. Anything from parts to small assembleys will do.

Vinyl Record Molding Hi, I am a complete newbie with all things plastics, so please forgive me if I sound stupid. But i figured that you engineers are experts so are the best guys to ask about this kind of thing. What process would be required to make these from old vinyl records?

Plastic Punching question Hello all, this is my first post, so I hope its in the correct place and that my questions makes sense. We are currently milling slots in an extruded plastic part on a 3 axis router. I'm investigating the possibility of punching these slots. Does anyone have experience with punching plastic or can recommend some one who does? Here are the basic specs on what needs to be accomplished......

Polymer Memory Retention I have a query for the massed ranks of engineer / material science / designers out there... I'm designing a product with a seal which is to be compressed when not in use. The production material will be SEBS, but for a prototype, we silicone molded one from a Shore 60 A PU resin. It works very well, but when left compressed for a long period of time (over night for example), we noticed that the seal is slow to return......

Store boxes on their large side with gravity. I need to store medicine (rectangular) boxes in a rectangular shaped tube. I have to DROP boxes from the top of that tube. they will drop with gravty. boxes are light catoon medicine boxes. Of course, even I drop then as their wide side looks below, because of friction, small hits to the borders of the storage tubes, their position will change while they drop.....

UnansweredquestionsThe best mechanical/industrial drawing books? Does anyone know about of some recent changes of drawing standards? New specifications, "amendments", regulations, etc.? For mechanical drawings. I am interested for metric ISO standard.

Inventor Divide an object with multiple curves i don't know inventor very well so maybe someone here can help me...i want to divide a 3d model with 3 archs. The problem is inventor just let me select one arch and not all so my model gets unwanted cuts......chain block design hello am currently working on a project on how to design a chain block of 10ton capacity..and it most be control from a remote source....electrically...please could you help me ...my giving me your ideas and also website or link relevant to my project...thanks

Geothermal power stations, braze/copper damage we're tendering for a generator inspection where the turbine is driven from geothermal steam I have a lingering memory from university that copper, that copper, or at least the silver within the braze alloy used join the sections together, can be damage due to effects from hydrogen sulfide, methane and ammonia present in the atmosphere.......